The Nightwalkers Saga: Books 1 - 7

by Candace Wondrak

  There is a part of me that wants to tell Kass that I am her father. All of those days she whined about how she never met him, never knew who he was…those times were the worst. I wanted desperately to tell her that I was right beside her all along.

  But even that would be a lie. I left her three years ago because the new head of the Council wanted to see if I had any conflicts of interest, since my Purifier was indeed my own daughter.

  When I returned home, I found that we’d been right, and that Kass was the deciding factor in the fate of the world.

  Deep down, I was resistant towards the idea that the worst evil imaginable was given powers only an Angel would have: healing and mind-reading are only two abilities he has because of the light in him.

  For all the light, though, there is an equal, if not a bit unbalanced, amount of darkness. If he didn’t have Kass at his side, who also has a Heaven-sent ability to bring out the virtuousness and integrity of every Demon she encounters, he would break.

  If Gabriel ever loses her, God help us. God help us all.

  I closed the laptop abruptly. I knew it. The boy I’d been watching all these years was the one we’d been searching for for centuries. Millennia. He was the one the prophets spoke of to my ancestors.

  The one who would wreak havoc on the world, destroying everything and everyone, except the chosen few. The Order. Tainted blood, Sephira called it, but that was hogwash. My blood was pure.

  In the next few seconds, I was dashing to my closet and dragging out an almost-forgotten black box. I put in the combination and threw the top off. The sight of the prehistoric cell phone nearly made me laugh outright. I plugged it into the wall, and after waiting a minute as it charged, I dialed the only number stored in it.

  After a few rings, an answering machine told me to leave a message. I didn’t think he’d answer.

  “This is Michael,” I said quickly while prying open the bottom, hidden drawers of the leather box. “I found him. He’s been right under my nose for all these years. I’ll send you his information when I get the chance.” I paused, my phony English accent wavering, “I know how to awaken him.”

  I hung up and dug through the remaining contents, searching for the jar that held my favorite poison. I found it in a matter of seconds. Holding up the jar, I smiled in remembrance of my last kill.

  It was a shame it had to come to this, it really was. I didn’t want to inject this poison into the food I was baking, but I had to. It was my duty.

  Kassandra Niles had no idea what was in store for her.

  The Order would reign supreme, and in order to do that, Kass had to die.

  Skinwalkers

  Chapter One – Kass

  Walking through the cemetery, stake in hand, my palms were too rough from the constant fighting and training to ever get a single splinter. Some nights were quiet, and while I loved the fighting and the staking and the witty lines I tried, sometimes the quiet nights were the best. It’s when I did a lot of my thinking.

  Of course, in order to have some quiet time, I’d have to actually go hunting in the cemetery again. I haven’t been on a good hunt in ages, it felt like. Lately, my life had been nothing short of a whirlwind.

  A few days ago, all the visions of my mom came to fruition.

  I died.

  It might be silly, but I could still feel Sephira’s hands around my neck. What was even more ridiculous was the fact that I swore I heard my own neck snap before everything went black.

  I didn’t stay dead, though. In a never-ending space of white, I saw Koath—my dad. It was…still weird to call him that. My whole life, even after he dumped me with Michael and Gabriel, I knew him as Koath. He would forever be Koath to me.

  Not that I was used to him being gone, because I wasn’t. It didn’t happen that long ago. I was still angry, still mad at Crixis—and the idiot thought it was a good idea to live in the house across the street from mine?

  Somehow, some way, I was going to find a way to purify the un-killable, whether or not there was a higher-level Demon inside of him.

  I let out a sigh. Lately, I’d been way too angsty, but I didn’t know how to act otherwise.

  A loud noise shook me from my mind, and I came back to the present: school cafeteria, talkative students, the new principal—a rough and tumble sort of guy, a normal civilian in a position where the last two principals had vanished (or were murdered, depending how you looked at it). He stood with his arms crossed, his suit tight on his body. He looked like he used to be a football player or something.

  Liz couldn’t take the position permanently; she didn’t want to. She was too busy with Council paperwork and sending Titain’s body overseas. The poor guy. He’d done nothing but his job, and now he was dead.

  People had a habit of dying around me.

  In reality, Liz would probably return to the Council, once she wrapped things up here. I overheard her talking to Michael, saying that she had to find a new Guardian for Max, and that she was tracking down a lead nearby.

  That was all right. Max deserved someone like Koath, someone who could focus on him, not someone who had a million other responsibilities.

  The loud noise that brought me back to my body belonged to Gabriel and his food tray, and he sat down with a smile across from me. He’d cut his hair last night; the sides were almost scalp-level, and his usual spikes were unstyled and only an inch long, laying flat against his head. He wore a long-sleeve shirt, too lazy this morning to dab makeup on his tattoos.

  Beside me, Max nearly lost hold of his book with the ruckus. He blinked, staring at the tray of nuggets and fries. “Didn’t you pack a lunch?” He put a finger in his book, titled Genome Sequences.

  What a strange kid.

  “Of course I did,” Gabriel answered with a wink at me. “I just thought, you know, since you’ve been starving yourself, I’d do you a solid and get you some food I know you can’t turn down.”

  “I have not been starving myself,” I muttered, eyeing his chicken nuggets. “I just…haven’t felt like eating. Dying does that to you.” The past few days I’d simply thrown away the lunch Michael had packed for me.

  Sorry, Michael.

  Gabriel’s brows rose. “Oh, really? You have a lot of experience with that?”

  “More than you, you jerk,” I said, rolling my eyes as I pushed my lunch toward him. “Fine, fine. The aroma of those store-bought, freezer-burned chicken nuggets convinced me. Trade me.” It was hard, acting like everything was fine, acting like your best friend couldn’t possibly be the Devil.

  There might be some darkness in him but come on—it’s Gabriel. The boy had a Lego Deathstar hanging in the corner of his room.

  And…that dream. The kiss. What came after...

  I pushed away the thought, since the boy could read my mind, though I made him promise me he wouldn’t.

  And, judging by his vacant expression, he didn’t.

  “Fine,” Gabriel begrudgingly said, pushing the tray toward me and taking the bag. He took out Michael’s homemade pulled beef sandwich and dug in with no hesitation. “But don’t judge me when I eat the one he packed for me right after I finish this one.”

  I took a bite of a nugget when Max looked around, pushing his glassed up his nose. “Where’s Claire?”

  Claire, the athletic Morpher who could turn into a white cougar. Claire, his maybe-girlfriend who was bitten by Crixis to force me to go along with his asinine plan. Claire—the girl who I was supposed to swing by and pick up from the art room before I came to lunch.

  “I said I’d meet her. I totally forgot,” I spoke with a sigh. “I’m terrible.”

  “Well,” Gabriel said thoughtfully, “we don’t put up with you because of your wonderful people skills. It’s a good thing you’re pretty.”

  The hair on my arms stood in unison with my straightening legs. Why did he have to go and say something like that? The idiot. The stupid idiot. Didn’t he know I was desperately trying not to have a repeat of me and the ot
her Gabriel from the other world? That was nice and fun, but it couldn’t happen here.

  I wouldn’t let it. Nope.

  I shot a quick glance at Max, who munched on a granola bar as he read, as if Gabriel saying something like that happened all the time. It did, far too often, more than it should. “I’ll be right back,” I said, hurrying away.

  Maybe it was because I wanted to crawl out of my skin, or possibly even the fact that it had happened so much to me here, in the school, but the moment I stepped into the empty hall, I froze, expecting to walk into a vision.

  No visions, though. None at all. Not sure if I was thankful or annoyed.

  Shrugging it off, I hustled past rows of lockers, turning down the school’s back hall, where the art and choir rooms were. I passed a few kids, because there were always nerds who liked to eat in the choir room, and stopped in front of the art room. Its door was closed, which I found a little odd.

  I was about to knock when I heard someone call my name.

  “Kass.” A boy spotted me from a ways down the hall, near the photography room. He had some prints in his hands he must’ve gotten from the library. Seth, with his shaggy black hair, pearly white smile and…

  God, no. Not again.

  I steeled myself as he walked closer. “Seth, right?”

  “You remembered my name,” he said, amused. “Somehow, I’m surprised.”

  He wasn’t surprised. Not with his looks. Not with the fact that we’d run into each other more and more lately. He just wanted to act cool, and play a game I wasn’t interested in, not after everything.

  “Not as surprised as I am that you remembered mine,” I muttered, returning to the closed door.

  He didn’t take the hint. Instead, he said, “I haven’t seen you at any of the games. You should come to tomorrow’s. I could use you cheering me on in the stands.” Dimples on his cheeks—cute, but, again, no thanks.

  After what happened at that football game, and the following stuff with John, going to a game—even if it was a basketball game—did not sound like my cup of tea.

  “Oh, I’m sure you have a squad of peppy cheerleaders who have more than enough spirit to cheer you to victory,” I said dryly.

  Seth was about to say something else when the art room door opened, and Claire stood there, confused. Her blue eyes traveled to Seth, and then to me. Seth took the hint this time and waved before walking away.

  Once he was gone, Claire said, “Cute. But what would Gabriel think?”

  I tried peering into the room to see the art teacher, but all I saw was a single row of desks. We started walking to the cafeteria. “I don’t care what Gabriel thinks.”

  “He likes you.”

  I groaned. “No, he doesn’t. He just likes picking on me. He’s like a brother to me.” At one point in time, that was true. Now…now it might’ve been a lie.

  He was like a brother to me.

  You couldn’t make out with your brother, unless you were on Game of Thrones, then all bets were off. And as for my dream, well, I preferred not to think about it.

  Chapter Two – Gabriel

  As Kass walked away, I couldn’t help but stare at her butt. She had a nice one. Firm. I’d know—I’d touched it before. A few times. Some of them were on accident, some of them not-so-accidental.

  When she was out of sight, I looked at Max as I finished off the first sandwich at a record time. The red-headed kid was totally enthralled in his science book. What. A. Nerd. What a geek. I wasn’t even sure what to call him, because I’d never seen someone like him—a teenager, who not only fought Demons in his spare time, but also read science journals.

  Yuck.

  “So, my man Max,” I said, tapping the table. “When you going to seal the deal with your girl Claire?” Okay, that kind of came out wrong.

  But it didn’t matter, because Max had no idea what I just said. “What does seal the deal mean?”

  “When you going to ask her out? Take her on a date? Make her fall so madly and deeply in love with you that she can’t imagine her life without you in it. You know, normal boy stuff.” Holy crap. When did I start sounding so…old? Normal boy stuff. Who said that?

  Honestly, I wasn’t feeling so much myself lately. Not after watching Kass die.

  It was…the single worst moment in my life.

  Never had I felt so helpless. Never had I wanted to kill something so much. Forget purifying. I wanted to kill that Original, and I did, after something snapped. Something took me over, made me say some weird, psycho babble, and then…and then I killed her. I killed an Original.

  I killed an Original.

  It just didn’t sound right.

  If anyone here was the special snowflake of the group, it was Kass, not me. I wasn’t the special one. I was just Gabriel. A relatively normal guy who knew how to purify with a pencil. Nothing special here. No old soul here.

  Just me.

  Just…me.

  Max actually closed his book and set it on the table. No bookmarks needed; he’d remember what page he left off on. “I’m not smooth like you, Gabriel. I don’t know how to do that kind of thing.”

  Was he asking me for advice?

  Well, back in my heyday, I did date a lot of girls, after my first girlfriend tried to feed me to her pet Nightwalkers. That was super fun, a day I’d never forget.

  “Well, there are lots of ways to do it.” I started eating the other sandwich, even though my stomach felt a little strange. Feeling strange never stopped me from finishing a meal. Food and I, we were close. Almost as close as Kass and I. “I don’t know Claire as well as you. Do you know what she likes?”

  “Uh…” Max was at a loss for words, especially when Claire and Kass appeared behind him.

  Claire moved to sit across from him, unrolling her bagged lunch. A flattened wrap with some baked chips. How disgustingly healthy. “What who likes?” she asked, looking from Max to Gabriel.

  Kass smiled knowingly, staring at me from across the table. We sat by the wrong person. She should be next to me, and Claire should be next to Max, not the other way around. “I’m sure,” Kass said after resuming her demolition of the fries and nuggets, “that Gabriel was just giving Max some important advice.”

  Max nodded to himself, insanely focused on his granola.

  “Advice about what?” Claire wouldn’t let it go, clueless as she was.

  I set the second sandwich down. A sharp pain jabbed in my gut. It felt like I was being impaled. Ridiculous, I knew, because I knew I wasn’t being stabbed by anything. I moved a hand to my stomach, feeling the sudden urge to vomit.

  Kass swallowed her mouthful, leaning closer to me as she whispered, “Are you all right? You don’t look so good.”

  “I always…” My face scrunched. The pain was like nothing I’d ever felt before, physically. “…look good.” I didn’t sound too convincing. Sweat pooled on my forehead, and I stood, feeling wobbly. My legs didn’t work well, though, and I fell. My chest felt so heavy, like there was a ton of bricks sitting on top of me. I couldn’t breathe.

  I vaguely heard Kass shouting for me as she ran to my side. The cafeteria got quiet as everyone watched. I liked being the center of attention, but not like this. Was this what dying felt like? Was I going to die?

  The principal was on his knees beside me, trying to talk to me, taking out his phone.

  Was this the end?

  Chapter Three – Michael

  On the way to the hospital, I cursed over and over again. The stupid kids couldn’t eat their own lunches, even when I packed them the same thing. If Kass would’ve eaten it, like I had intended for the last few days, my work here could’ve been done. I could’ve returned to the Order with Gabriel in tow, and a new world could’ve been born.

  But no. Nothing could ever go right, could it?

  It shouldn’t surprise me. Kass didn’t know when to die, or how to stay dead. Who knew if the poison would’ve actually done the job, or if she’d walk it off like she walked off eve
rything else?

  I was at a stoplight, and after debating on what to do, I reached for my phone. When the ringing stopped, I instantly said, “I’m on my way to the hospital. Something happened at school with Gabriel.”

  “Something happened? What happened?” Liz’s voice was frantic. “Is Max all right? And Kass?”

  “As far as I know, it’s just Gabriel. I don’t know what happened yet. All I know is that an ambulance took him there.” I started moving once the light turned green.

  It was a moment before Liz whispered, “I’ll come back. I’m only thirty minutes away.”

  I thought about arguing, but after today’s failure, I could use some womanly company. Was it wrong for me to lie to everyone? Maybe. But it was wrong for the world to despise someone who went against their superior simply because they didn’t believe in the same thing? What if both sides were right? What if there was no wrong?

  Such existential questions I wouldn’t have the answers to, perhaps ever.

  After saying goodbye and exchanging words of love, I hung up. I pulled into the hospital’s parking lot twenty minutes later, forced to park in the boondocks of the area because of all the cars. Who knew hospitals were so busy all the time?

  I rushed into the Emergency Room entrance and told the receptionist who I was the guardian of. Lower-cased guardian. They didn’t have to know anything about the Council or Purifiers. I cut a few people off in order to do so, but I didn’t care.

  I only cared about making sure Gabriel was all right.

  Without him, without his real awakening, the world would never be born anew.

  I heard what happened. I saw the unnatural angle Kass’s neck was. A wound like that no one could recover from. I saw Gabriel transform into something of legend, something that the Order had been searching for for millennia. It was only a glimpse; it didn’t last long, for somehow Kass didn’t stay dead, but the boy was, without a doubt, the herald.

  The Beast reborn.

  The second coming, not of Christ, but of something much worse.